Mashriqi Arabic, or
ʿAmmiya, is the varieties of Arabic spoken in the
Mashriq, including the countries of
Egypt,
Sudan,
Yemen,
Saudi Arabia,
Lebanon,
Palestine,
Israel,
Kuwait,
Oman, the
United Arab Emirates,
Jordan,
Syria and
Iraq. The
Eastern Arabic known also as
Mashriqi Arabic (as opposed to the
Western Arabic known as
Maghrebi Arabic) that includes
Mesopotamian Arabic and
Peninsular Arabic along with
Levantine Arabic. In Lebanon, Mashriqi Arabic as a colloquial language was taught as a separate subject under French colonization, and some textbooks exist. Speakers of Mashriqi call their language ʿAmmiya, which means "dialect" in
Modern Standard Arabic. It is primarily used as a spoken language; written communication is primarily done in Modern Standard Arabic (or
English or
French), along with news broadcasting. Mashriqi Arabic is used for almost all spoken communication, as well as in TV dramas and on advertising boards in Egypt and Lebanon whilst Modern Standard Arabic (
(al-)fuṣ-ḥā) is used for written communication. The varieties of Darija have a significant degree of mutual intelligibility, specially between geographically adjacent ones (e.g. Lebanese and Syrian, or Iraqi and Kuwaiti). Conversely, Darija is very hard to understand for Arabic speakers from the
Maghreb, as it does derive from different substratums and a mixture of a few languages.